Abstract
After the war, Berliners’ dire need for housing and infrastructure sometimes presented a life or death struggle. Some resources and labor were diverted to transform the symbolic dimension of the urban landscape. The Allies called for the removal of all public symbols of Nazism and German militarism, and German officials at the local level were delegated the task of identifying these sites. The Berlin Magistrat developed lists of street signs and monuments to be removed as symbols of Nazism, militarism, and Prussian monarchy. The process involved debate that followed party lines. German Communists took the most iconoclastic stance, due to a view of German exceptionalism that traced the roots of Nazism to the Prussian state. German Communists and the Soviet Military Administration (SMAD) began constructing memorials to honor their fallen, imposing narratives that honored enemies of the former Reich.
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